Avoiding Spiritual Stagnation When Feeling Knowledgeable About God
Job's confession captures a paradox at the heart of spiritual knowledge: "Truly I know it is so; but how can man be just with God?" [1]. Acknowledging what we know about God can coexist with recognizing the vast distance between human comprehension and divine reality. This tension guards against the stagnation that comes when familiarity breeds complacency.
Knowledge as Progressive, Not Static
Calvin describes the believer's knowledge of God as "at first involved in much ignorance,—ignorance, however, which is gradually removed" [2]. The progress ought to be uninterrupted, he insists, with each stage bringing "a nearer and surer view" through continuance [2]. This framework rejects the notion that one ever arrives at a plateau of complete understanding. Even mature faith operates within what Calvin calls "partial ignorance or obscure discernment," which paradoxically does not prevent "clear knowledge of the divine" [2]. The apostle Paul's prayer that believers might "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" [3] illustrates this: faith embraces realities it cannot fully grasp, understanding more "from mere certainty of persuasion than it could discern of any human matter by its own capacity" [3].
The Danger of Presumption
Aquinas observes that "it is impossible for any created intellect to comprehend God," though "for the mind to attain to God in some degree is great beatitude" [6]. The distinction matters: knowing God truly differs from knowing God exhaustively. Calvin warns that knowledge can be "stifled or corrupted, ignorantly or maliciously" when accompanied by "pride and stubbornness" [4]. The remedy lies in returning "to the word of God, in which we are furnished with the right rule of understanding," since "Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which as nothing useful and necessary to be known has been omitted, so nothing is taught but what it is of importance to know" [5].
Charles Hodge emphasizes that spiritual illumination is "not a revelation of new truths, but an illumination of the mind, so that it apprehends the truth, excellence, and glory of things already revealed" [7]. Growth comes not from accumulating novel information but from deeper apprehension of what has been given. The minister's task, Hodge notes, is simply to "hold forth the Word of life" and preach "in season and out of season" [8]—the Spirit's work ensures that familiar truths strike with fresh force.
Sources
- Job “Job 9:2 (LITV) — Truly I know it is so; but how can man be just with God?”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 57: and propitious; far off, indeed, but still so distinctly as to assure us that there is no delusion in it. In proportion to the progress we afterwards make (and the progress ought to be uninterrupted), we obtain a nearer and surer view, the very continuance making it more familiar to us. Thus we see that a mind illumined with the knowledge of God is at first involved in much ignorance,—ignorance, however, which is gradually removed. Still this partial ignorance or obscure discernment does not prevent that clear knowledge of the divi”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 57: in order to reach it. Nor even when it has reached it does it comprehend what it feels, but persuaded of what it comprehends not, it understands more from mere certainty of persuasion than it could discern of any human matter by its own capacity. Hence it is elegantly described by Paul as ability “to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” ( Eph. 3:18, 19 ). His object was to intimate, that what our mind embraces by faith is every w”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 20: 46 CHAPTER 4. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD STIFLED OR CORRUPTED, IGNORANTLY OR MALICIOUSLY. Sections. 1. The knowledge of God suppressed by ignorance, many falling away into superstition. Such persons, however, inexcusable, because their error is accompanied with pride and stubbornness. 2. Stubbornness the companion of impiety. 3. No pretext can justify superstition. This proved, first, from reason; and, secondly, from Scripture. 4. The wicked never willingly come into the presence of God. Hence their hypocrisy. Hence, too, their sense of ”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 76: be treated with moderation, yet 2205 because they keep too far within the proper measure, they have little influence over the human mind, which does not readily allow itself to be curbed. Therefore, in order to keep the legitimate course in this matter, we must return to the word of God, in which we are furnished with the right rule of understanding. For Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which as nothing useful and necessary to be known has been omitted, so nothing is taught but what it is of importance to know. Every ”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), How God Is Known by Us, Art. 7: Article: Whether those who see the essence of God comprehend Him? I answer that, It is impossible for any created intellect to comprehend God; yet "for the mind to attain to God in some degree is great beatitude," as Augustine says (De Verb. Dim., Serm. xxxvii). In proof of this we must consider that what is comprehended is perfectly known; and that is perfectly known which is known so far as it can be known. Thus, if anything which is capable of scientific demonstration is held only by an opinion resting on a ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 9: by God in His Word ( 1 Cor. ii. 10-16 ). It is not, therefore, a revelation of new truths, but an illumination of the mind, so that it apprehends the truth, excellence, and glory of things already revealed. And second, 16 This experience is depicted in the Word of God. The Bible gives us not only the facts concerning God, and Christ, ourselves, and our relations to our Maker and Redeemer, but also records the legitimate effects of those truths on the minds of believers. So that we cannot appeal to our own feelings or inward experience, as ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 54: them, if we do not think of them. And it matters little how much we think of them, if we cannot see them; and we cannot see them unless the Spirit opens the eyes of our heart. We see too from this subject why the Bible represents it as the great duty of the ministry to hold forth the Word of life; by the manifestation of the truth to commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. This is all they need do. They must preach the Word in season and out of season, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. They kno”